Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Campanulids: Asterales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA (11/30/12):
Sericocarpus asteroides
FAMILY
Asteraceae
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
Test-drive A Teaching Key to Asters.
See herbarium specimens at the Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants.
Read more about Sericocarpus at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Sericocarpus asteroides
FAMILY
Asteraceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 179-47-001:
Aster paternus
FAMILY
Asteraceae
COMMON NAME:
Toothed Whitetop Aster
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
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USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_seas3_001_lvd
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JK Marlow jkm200525_5198
May Greenville County SC
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JK Marlow jkm200525_5201
May Greenville County SC
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JK Marlow jkm220517_7894
May Greenville County SC
Chestnut Ridge Heritage Preserve
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JK Marlow jkm220517_7896
May Greenville County SC
Chestnut Ridge Heritage Preserve
)
JK Marlow jkm0506j_16
June Oconee County SC
The 1/2" heads are borne in flat-topped clusters, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains.
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JK Marlow jkm0506j_18
June Oconee County SC
Leaves elliptic, lower with a petiole & a few teeth, upper smaller & sessile, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains.
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JK Marlow jkm170624_242
June Oconee County SC
Sumter National Forest: Andrew Pickens Ranger District
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JK Marlow jkm210610_1257
June Greenville County SC
Blackwell Heritage Preserve
Leaves of the basal rosette much larger than the cauline leaves, per Weakley's Flora.
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JK Marlow jkm210619_1461
June Greenville County SC
Involucres narrowly campanulate to cylindric, upper bracts usually squarrose, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas.
COMPARE
involucral bracts of North American asters
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JK Marlow jkm210619_1466
June Greenville County SC
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JK Marlow jkm210619_1467
June Greenville County SC
The so-called White-topped Asters have about 5 rays and creamy-white disks, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains.
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JK Marlow jkm210619_1469
June Greenville County SC
Rays broader than those of S. linifolius, per Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians.
)
JK Marlow jkm190702_9587
July Greenville County SC
)
JK Marlow jkm190726_0165
July Transylvania County NC
DuPont State Forest
)
JK Marlow jkm200703_6313
July Greenville County SC
Stems generally scabrous-puberulent in the inflorescence, per Manual of Vascular Plants of NE US & Adjacent Canada (Gleason & Cronquist, 1991).
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JK Marlow jkm200703_6315
July Greenville County SC
)
JK Marlow jkm200703_6318
July Greenville County SC
)
JK Marlow jkm200703_6320
July Greenville County SC
)
JK Marlow jkm190810_0637
August Greenville County SC
)
Patrick D. McMillan pdmsasteroides_buzroost3
Month Unknown Oconee County SC
Buzzard Roost Heritage Preserve
Coastal Plain populations are rhizomatous, while inland populations are not, per Weakley's Flora.
WEAKLEY'S FLORA (11/30/12):
Sericocarpus asteroides
FAMILY
Asteraceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Sericocarpus asteroides
FAMILY
Asteraceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 179-47-001:
Aster paternus
FAMILY
Asteraceae
163
Forb
Perennial
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Documented growing wild in GA NC SC
Common
Look for it in dry woodlands, thin soils around rock outcrops, sandhills, dry pinelands, per Weakley's Flora
Click here to see a more detailed map from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium,
or click here to see a map from SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
LEAVES:
Simple
Alternate & basal rosette
FLOWER:
Summer
Rays: White
Disc: White
Disc flowers bisexual & fertile/ Ray flowers pistillate & fertile
Inferior ovary
Flower heads in flat corymbs
FRUIT:
Summer
Achene
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses p016
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide p210
- Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast p188
- Wildflowers of the Eastern United States p112
- Wildflowers of Tennessee p324
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians p375
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains p213
- Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region p046